Crime of Passion
by Darkchyld1980
Summary: Bella Swan has lived in the shadows of others her entire career as a CSI Lab Tech, until one fateful day she gets the chance to prove her worth. Will she be successful and solve the case? Will Edward realize his feelings for her? AU/AH
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Ok guys! Here is my new story co-authored with my Beta Fate Lowe. I will be writing in Bella's POV, while she will be writing in Edward's POV. I hope you guys like this story as much as we do!**_

**Disclaimer: We own nothing but the plot and our SuperPets: Spike and Congo!**

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BPOV

Why is it, that every morning when I wake up I think that something miraculous is going to happen to me, only to be let down at the end of the day? Call it optimistic cynicism. Call it delightfully delusional. Call it whatever the fuck you want, but that's how I live my life.

Well fuck that!

Not today!

Today I am going to wash my hands of the delusional life that I have been living. Today I am going to march up to my dickhead of a boss -- who will never give me the raise or the promotion that I have been asking for the past three goddamn years -- and tell him that I quit. Then I am going to pull the fire alarm in the building as I am walking out and stand on the sidewalk across the street and watch with a huge smile on my face as people come flying out the front doors soaking wet. I'm going to stand there and laugh as Jessica and Lauren run out screaming bloody murder that their Prada bags were ruined from the water. Then I will walk off down the street with a slight bounce in my step as I leave a crowd of drowned people in my wake.

Yeah, that sounds like a great idea, let me get right on that. I threw back my comforter and swung my legs over the ledge of my bed. I looked over at my alarm clock, noting that it was about to go off any second and moved to turn it off. Stretching my arms over my head and yawning, I flopped back down onto my back.

_Oh who am I kidding? _

_Exactly who_ are _you kidding_?

Great now I am having a mental war with myself? I rubbed the heel of my hands into my eyes to clear out the sleep that was threatening to take them over again and sat up. With a loud huff of annoyance I stood up and made my way to my bathroom that was conveniently attached to my bedroom. Flicking on the light switch and gazing at my reflection, I ran my fingers through my hair and decided to finally take Alice up on her offer to take me to get my hair cut.

_Yeah, should have down that about three months ago dip-shit!_

I grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste and went to town on my pearly whites. While I was scrubbing the fur that had grown on my teeth overnight, I opened my shower door and turned it on, waiting for the hot water to kick in. After rinsing and spitting, I quickly disrobed and hopped in the nearly scalding water.

_Ah, much better!_

The hot water woke me up and relaxed me at the same time. I was dreading the morning that I was about to face. Not that I entirely minded doing what I did for a living, but the fact that I was only an _assistant_ to a lab technician was just.....was just....well....well just horseshit! I didn't spend four years in college getting my BA in forensics to end up as an assistant to a lab technician. I was better than that. I was supposed to be higher than a lab tech; I was supposed to be the one to give orders to a lab tech to synthesize a piece of evidence, not carry them out. I was supposed to be at the scene of a crime collecting evidence to solve the said crime that lay at my feet. Instead I stood in the shadows _writing_ down the findings of analyzing said piece of evidence.

_Sounds like bullshit to me!_

_You got that right!_

Soaping up and rinsing, I reached for my shampoo and quickly washed my hair. The hot water was beginning to run out, thus ending my shower. Turning off the water and stepping out of the shower stall, I grabbed a towel and quickly dried off, before dropping the towel in the laundry basket and making my way to my closet. Though, the one good thing about being an assistant, I really didn't have to dress up that much for work. I pulled out a simple pair of black slacks and a black blouse and got dressed. Black hides blood better. I learned that quickly in my last year of college where I was interning for a mortician. I had forgotten to put on my smock and as I as begin the Y-incision, I missed the rather large mass that was protruding just below the collarbone and blood burst out of it like poking a hole in a water balloon. Needless to say, I was thankful that I was wearing black that day, or else I would have looked like I had just murdered someone as the blood sprayed all over the front of my shirt. The mortician just laughed at me and told me it was a good thing I was wearing black. I couldn't agree more. So, from that day forward, I _always_ wore black to work. Always. And I always remembered to put on my smock _before_ doing anything that including cutting open a corpse. I just also happen to look like I was going to a funeral, but hey when you work with the dead, it does seem morbidly appropriate, dontcha think?

_Yeah, cause everyday when you go to work, you wish you_ were _dead!_

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I finished getting dressed before pulling my hair back in a tight bun. Can't let my hair get in my way at the job; I wouldn't want the lab techs accidentally mixing my hair with that of a potential suspect. That wouldn't be good. Not at all.

After slipping on my shoes, swiping my glasses off my dresser and putting them on, I made my way to the kitchen to grab a bagel before I collected my purse and keys and headed out to face yet another depressing day at the lab. I really was trying to remain hopeful that today could be a turning point for my career like I did everyday, but it was hard when I had done this for the past three years with no good end result in sight. Ever.

Climbing into my car and starting it, I waited for the engine to heat up before pulling out of my driveway and heading into work. I had a rather huge case to help out with today. A double homicide, both victims female, both bodies were found at a playground where a six year old boy found them and ran back to his mommy asking why there was two naked girls lying under the monkey bars sleeping. Both victims had been raped and beaten from I was told, but that there was no real evidence as to why they were at the playground. I had heard from CSI Whitlock that he thought both girls were dumped there, not murdered there, but that they couldn't find that crucial piece of evidence that stated otherwise. That's why I had to come in early this morning, to help out the lab in trying to find that clue that could lead us to the actual murder sight. Not that I would actually be handling any evidence, oh no, not me. I wasn't _nearly_ quailified to do that, as though I got my BA out of a fucking Cracker-Jack box. Horseshit, I know! But still, I sucked it up, everyday, in hopes that I _could_ one day be the one to crack a case.

_As if_ that _would ever happen._

I arrived at the lab just a little after four in the morning and immediately went into the lounge to grab a cup of coffee to go with my bagel. Upon entering I saw that the coffee was still brewing and thanked Ali-Baba that it was fresh. I walked to the counter and set down my bagel before going over to my assigned locker and placing my purse and keys in, while grabbing out my lab coat and beeper. I was just buttoning the last button when the lounge door opened and someone walked in.

"Oooooh, a bagel," a familiar voice said. I knew that voice anywhere. I heard it in my dreams everynight. That voice could make any girl's panties drop, including yourstruly. That voice belonged to Edward "the voice that drips sex" Cullen.

_Not likely Swan. That's why you only hear it in your_ dreams.

I was still hidden behind my locker door, but I could see him out of the corner of my eye, as he walked over to counter where my breakfast was laying. His bronze hair was in complete disarray as usual, more so this morning probably from the pressure of this case. Everyone wanted this case to be solved, yet it seemed like no one knew where to start. Funny, a building full of forensic scientists and not one of them seemed to be able to crack this case. So sad.

"And there's fresh coffee? I've died and gone to heaven!" he said.

_'Me too,'_ I thought as I watched him pour himself a cup of coffee before picking up my bagel.

"Eh," I squeaked as he slowly took a bite of my breakfast, his jaw working slowly as he chewed the bagel before it stopped at hearing my vocal protest to him eating my breakfast.

_So much for eating this morning._

I closed my locker door and clipped my beeper to my hip, then stood there silently as he resumed his chewing before swallowing. He cleared his throat and looked at me with both eyebrows raised. He must have saw that my eyes were trained on the bagel that he was holding inhis right hand and looked down at it before he looked back up at me.

"Was this yours?" he asked in a smooth voice holding up the bagel.

All I could dowas nod slowly as my cheeks burned in embarrassment from being caught watching him eat my food parcel. I made my way over to the counter and grabbed my mug from beside the coffee pot. We all had our own mugs and they were labeled with clever nicknames that Alice had painted on them. Mine was labeled 'Klutz'. Bitch. She knew how embarrassing it was for me to be clumsy, but still, she always mocked me at any chance she had. I still loved her though. Edward's was labeled 'Ace'. The reason for that nickname was not lost on anyone.

"It's ok. I'll just grab something from the vending machine. It's no big deal," I said softly pouring coffee into my mug. I refused to make eye contact with the beautiful man beside me. He was just casually leaning his left hip against the counter and I watched him out of my periphery as he sat down his coffee mug on the counter.

"Nonsense Bella. I thought Alice brought it in for me. She told me earlier on the phone that she was bringing in bagels this morning," he said.

I internally shuddered as he said my name. We had worked together for the better part of two years, but not once had he ever said my name. For a while I didn't think he knew it, but that just goes to show you how much I know. Of course he would know my name, I'm best friends with his sister for fuck sake's and have been for over seven years. It wasn't until recently I realized that I had a crush on him. Alice knew of course, but never said anything directly to me or him for that matter. Thank merciful jebus for small miracles. He-he, I said small miracles...Alice is small.....yeah, I didn't think it was _that_ funny either.

"No really, it's ok. I guess I can just wait until she comes in to get another one," I said as I stirred in a small amount of sugar into my black coffee. I didn't want to ask him to move so I could grab the creamer out of the frig. That was just asking for a disaster. I had learned to drink my coffee black when he happened to be in this room.

"That won't be for another three hours."

I just shrugged my shoulders and took a sip of my coffee.

_Mmmmm...coffee._

"Here," he said as he set down the creamer in front of the coffee pot. I hadn't even seen him move, much less heard him opening and closing the frig door. I flinched and blinked at the creamer as it sat there, taunting me with its creamy goodness. I just stared at the cardboard container in front of me, looking as if it appeared out of thin air.

"Bella?"

I jumped at his voice and was lucky I didn't spill my hot coffee all over myself.

"Huh?" I asked quietly as I blinked up at him.

"I know you take cream in your coffee," he said smiling. I swear I felt my panties slipping over my hips slightly at seeing him smile at me.

"How did you..." I trailed off as I sat down my mug and reached for the creamer.

"You know, for someone who is educationally trained to be overly observant, your skills seem to lacking all of the sudden," he said smoothly with a cocky grin.

_He's mocking you!_

_I don't care!_

_Yes, you do._

_Do not! He's teasing, just like everyone else does._

I seriously needed to shut my brain off sometimes, like now! I finished stirring in the creamer and took a sip, smiling as the liquid slid down my throat.

"See, much better," he said as he replaced the cap on the creamer and put it back in the frig.

We stood there for several minutes, both of us silently drinking our coffee, neither one of us saying anything. I was actually too scared to start up a conversation with him. This was probably the most we had said to each other over the course of us working together. True we had known each other for years, but that didn't mean we actually spoke to one another. Alice, Edward and I had all gone to high school together -- he was a year ahead of Alice and I -- but whereas Alice and I both attended and graduated from the same college, Edward had gone to a different one. He had moved here two years ago from Boston and had quickly snagged the role of Lead CSI after finding a vital piece of evidence that solved a two year old serial killer case. The lab dept threw him a party. I was invited; I didn't stay long though. Just long enough to say congrats, before I spilled my beer all over him from tripping over air and abruptly leaving before I could embarrass myself further.

"Bella, you wanna split the bagel?" he asked reaching for a knife and cutting it in half, keeping the already bitten side for himself of course.

"Umm..." I stammered.

I saw the other half of the bagel waved from side to side under my nose. "You know you want it," he taunted.

_'That's not the_ only _thing you have that I want_,' I thought as I tentatively grabbed the the bagel from his fingers and took a small bite.

We both finished our coffee and half a bagel in silence. As I rinsed out my coffee mug I asked, "How did you know I took cream in my coffee?"

He sat his empty mug on the counter. "Bella, we've known each other for how long?" he asked.

"Seven years," I mumbled as I dried my mug and reached over, grabbing his mug and rinsing it.

"Exactly. You tend to know certain things about someone after knowing them for so long," he laughed.

"I guess so," I replied, setting our mugs back beside the coffee machine.

"Well, I need to go solve this case," he said clapping his hands together and rubbing them against one another quickly.

"Don't let me stop you, Ace," I said sourly, nearly spitting out his nickname.

"Oh don't be like that Bella. I know you hate working in the lab as an assistant, but hey, we've all had jobs we hate at some point," he said placing a hand on my shoulder.

_'Yeah? How would you__know?'_ I thought as I tried in vain to repress a shudder from feeling his hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah. Go to it," I said shrugging his hand off. My will-power was not strong enough to contain the shudder much longer.

I turned and watched as he made his way to the door. He paused as he opened it, looking back at me as I leaned my back against the counter. "See you around," he said smiling before he walked out. I waited for the door to click closed before I let out a sigh and closed me eyes.

"Yeah, only in my dreams."

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**_A/N: So what do you guys think?_**


	2. Chapter 2

**_A/N: Ok guys, here is Ch 2 in Edward's POV, written by Fate Lowe. We will be posting every Thursday, just to give you guys a heads up to our posting schedule. Hope you enjoy the chapter! I think Fate Lowe did a fantastic job with writing Edward's POV!! All forensic details are accurate, I took forensics in college and we both watch CSI!!!_**

**_Disclaimer: We own nothing but the plot. _**

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EPOV

I heard Bella mumble something to herself after I closed the door. But, choosing to ignore it, I walked down the hall to my office. Sitting down at my desk, I ran my hands through my hair for the millionth time today. This case was stressing me out. I hadn't slept at all last night. My brain had refused to shut off. Everything that I knew about this case was going through my head, over and over in an endless loop. I sighed, running my hand trough my hair again, before turning to my computer. I hoped that I had something new from someone.

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No Messages.

Damn it!

I stood, with file in hand, and walked to what we referred to as our 'camp fire' room. It was a large room in the middle of the Lab. The only things it held was a large lighted table, a few dry erase boards, and some cork boards on the back wall. This is where we would spread out all of the evidence and data that we had collected, get everyone together, and brain storm whenever we were stuck. Like now.

As I entered the room, I turned on the light, which illuminated the table as well. I walked over and set the file on the table, opening it up. I flipped through the file yet again, hoping that what I was looking for would just appear. The entire team knew that the two women that were found in the park, weren't killed there. We just had no idea where the original crime scene was. All we needed was that one crucial piece of evidence. Some kind of trace that would lead us somewhere. I walked around the table that was covered in everything that had been gathered, which wasn't much at this point. I was examining the cork-board wall covered in crime scene photos when I heard my little pixie of a sister bounce into the room.

"Morning Ace! Bagel?"

"Morning Alice. Thanks."

I took one of the bagels out of the bag she held out to me. Turning back to continue examining the photos, I took a bite of my bagel.

"God, how can you eat and look at these gruesome photos at the same time? It's almost inhuman."

I shrugged, indicating that it didn't bother me in the least.

"Tough gut, I guess."

"Oh, Emmett wants to see you down in autopsy. He's getting ready to examine the bodies."

"Thanks again Alice. Oh, and make sure Bella gets one of those bagels. I kinda ate half of hers earlier."

Alice's tinkling laughter followed me down the hallway until I entered the elevator. I leaned against the back wall of the elevator, closing my eyes and listening to Debussy flow through the speakers.

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Thank god, for small miracles.

I loved that they played classical music in the elevators here. It helped to calm my anxiety a little bit.

The doors pinged open and I disembarked, walking towards the large double doors that led to our autopsy room. Pushing through, I heard the booming laughter of one of my best friends, Emmett.

"Hey, Em. How are you this morning?"

"Oh, hey dude. Give me a second."

I noticed that he was on the phone, probably with his wife Rosalie. It was hard to keep those two apart. He turned just as the doors opened again, revealing a rather harried looking Bella Swan. She looked over at me, a light blush covering her cheeks, before turning to our coroner.

"Sorry it took me so long, Emmett. Jessica has me running all over the place this morning."

"No problem, Bells. We're all here now so lets get started."

We all walked over to the autopsy tables as Emmett explained his preliminary findings.

"Well, from what I can tell at first glance, they were both tied up. Note the ligature marks around the wrists and ankles. Afterwards, they were both violently raped. Did a kit on both of them, and found nothing. No fluids, hairs, or anything else out of the ordinary."

"Condom?"

"No, I think they were penetrated by an object, like a pipe or something. I couldn't find a metal shavings inside the vic, the killer took their time cleaning the bodies afterwards, so really, it could have been any type of penetrating object. All I know is that both vics were sexual assaulted by something. Anyway, after they were violated, they were beaten before being asphyxiated. They were left on their backs for some time before being moved to the park. Hypostasis had already set in before the bodies were dumped."

He lifted up the first body, showing the blood pooled along her back. He set her back down and turned to Bella.

"Hey, Mike hasn't made it in yet. Do you mind washing these bodies off for me, so that I can do the internal exam?"

"Sure."

"Great, I need something to eat. Didn't Alice bring in bagels?"

"Sure did, Em. Let's go get one. Hey Bella, there's a bagel waiting for you in the lounge. I told Alice to bring you one but apparently you've been busy."

"Thanks."

Emmett and I left Bella in autopsy as we headed back upstairs.

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**_A/N: Reviews are loved and appreciated!!!_**


	3. Chapter 3

**_A/N: Alright guys, here's Ch 3, written by me. For new readers, I write from BPOV and Fate Lowe writes EPOV! Hope you guys enjoy!_**

**_Disclaimer: We own nothing but the plot, we just like to like to use the characters!_**

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BPOV

I watched as Emmett and Edward left through the doors in silence.

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I want a bagel too.

"Well, I guess it's just you and me for now," I said to the body that lay before me. I walked over to the coroner's locker to place my lab coat inside and retrieve my smock. I quickly put it on; it didn't matter if I wasn't assisting Emmett with the internal exam today, I was still putting on this damn thing. Besides, knowing my luck, while I was rinsing off the body I would spray myself down as well.

Walking back over to the body, I looked at it and just sighed. Poor thing was barely in her twenties, and now she will be referred to as an_ it _or _the body_, because as a forensic scientist, you have to remove yourself from getting personal or it will eventually weigh you down.

I grabbed a pair of gloves from the box that lay on the equipment table and put them on, along with a pair of goggles. From the way I looked, a person walking in would think _I_ was the coroner about to slice open this corpse. But alas, that wasn't my job; I just helped out Emmett every once in a while, mostly when Mike was running late.

Like today.

Deciding to start at the feet, I grabbed the hose and pressed down on the nozzle very gently as to not get any backwash. The water carefully glided over the graying skin of the feet and I made my way up the legs slowly. My eyes were ever sweeping the skin looking for anything that looked suspicious as I continued to wash the body.

As I got to the hips, I reached over to grab the left arm and that's when my eyes saw something that shouldn't be there.

Dirt. Or what appeared to be dirt.

Under the fingernails.

Startled by my discovery, I let go the the hose -- the water turning off immediately -- and examined the nails more closely.

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How did they miss this?

I turned the hand over and examined the palm, though there was nothing but the graying skin staring back at me. I laid the hand back down on the table and walked back over to the coroner's locker. I know that Emmett always left an evidence collection kit in it because every once in a while I would help him out and I would occasionally find a stray piece of evidence on the body we were examining. Retrieving the kit from the locker I made my way back over to the body, pulling the equipment table with me as I circled around it so I could easily examine the left hand. I placed the collection kit down on the table and opened it up. The kit contained: 5 2"x3" zip-top evidence bags, one set of plastic tweezers, a 2" magnifier, one plastic nail and cuticle scraper, one set of small nail clippers, one black Sharpie marker, 5 sterile cap-shure swabs, another set of nitrile gloves, and a role of lifting tape. It really was a small kit. I had seen the kit that Edward and Jasper used at crime scenes and they were huge compared to this kit.

I quickly stripped off the gloves I had on and shoved them into the pocket on the outside of my smock, as the trashcan was all the way across the room and I couldn't waste anytime walking over to it and throwing the gloves in. I needed every second right now. I grabbed the nitrile gloves and pulled them on. I pulled the nail scraper and nail clippers from the kit, along with two of the small evidence bags and the Sharpie marker before pushing the kit off to the side of the table. I chose to clip the nails first and placed the clippings in one of the bags, sealing it and marked it: _Left hand nail clippings_. I gingerly placed the bag next to the kit before picking up the fingernail scraper and got to work scraping out the dirt from under the nails. After marking the evidence bag: _Left hand nail-bed findings_, I quickly sealed the bag and placed it next to the other bag of evidence I had found. I also wrote my initials, the date and time on both bags so no one could get confused as to who had secured the evidence.

I gathered the unused contents of the kit and put them back in, zipping it closed while I stared at the two tiny bags that lay abandoned on the equipment table. They seemed to be giving off some sort of silent beacon, telling me to hurry up with the body and get to the lab to analyze my findings.

So that's what I did.

As I finished up rinsing off the body I heard the door open and three sets of feet coming into the room. I wasn't really paying a lot of attention to the people who had walked into the room until I heard one of them clear their throat.

"What's this?"

I abruptly lifted my head to find Jasper, Edward and Emmett standing on the opposite side of the body, next to the equipment table where the two bags of new evidence were laying, only one of the those bags were dangling from Jasper's hands as he held it up to the overhead light to get a better look at the contents.

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Shit!

"Nothing," I said quickly walking around the table, plucking the bag from his fingers with one hand while swiping the other bag off the table with my other hand. Jasper noticeably flinched at my quickness. I kept the bags in a tight grip while removing my smock and walking over to the locker to place it back in, while grabbing my lab coat.

"That's not nothing Bella; that looks like nail clippings. Did you find something on the body that we missed?" Edward asked, stepping up beside Jasper who still looked a bit shaken by my hastiness to get him away from the evidence bags.

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Crap on toast!

I shouldn't lie, but dammit,

I _found the evidence_!

I turned around to face the men after shutting the locker. "Umm....no. Those are my nail clippings," I said quickly lifting my left hand to show my nails -- which I had recently clipped yesterday.

Edward looked from my fingernails to my face and I prayed he believed my lie. His face showed that he didn't, but he remained silent and just nodded his head. Thankfully my beeper went off and reached down to check it.

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'LAB NOW',

was all it said and I knew Jessica was having a fit that I wasn't up there to write things down for her so she wouldn't have to.__

Fuck my life.

I groaned out loud as I put on my lab coat and looked up to see Jasper and Emmett laughing silently to themselves. I just glared at them for a split second before heading to the door.

I paused with my hand splayed against the door, before turning around to address them one last time.

"You know, one of these days, it won't be me your laughing at," and with that I exited the room with evidence bags in hand.

I made my way to the elevators and entered as soon as the doors slid open. Pushing the button for the lab floor, I leaned back against the wall and let out a loud sigh as the doors slid close.

__

Debussy again?

I wondered sometimes if Edward had programmed the elevator music to his tastes. I looked down at the two tiny bags in my hand and silently prayed that _I_ had found something that the others hadn't.

The doors pinged open and I stepped out still examining the bags and immediately collided with one pissed off Jessica. I staggered back for a second before regaining my footing and clutched the bags in my hand as to not drop them. Jessica just stood there, tapping her foot on the floor with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Took you long enough," she sneered.

"Sorry, but you knew I had to go down and help out Emmett today," I replied as I quickly shoved the bags in my coat pocket so she wouldn't see them. There was no way I was going to let her take the credit for potentially finding a case-breaker piece of evidence. It was _my_ turn.

"You know, if your father wasn't the Captain, I would have had you fired a long time ago for your incompetence," and with that she stalked off down the hall.

I snorted. It actually didn't matter if Charlie was Captain or not, she couldn't have gotten me fired, no matter how hard she tried. Charlie wasn't my boss - my father yes, but not my boss. Edward actually was, sort of, seeing how he solved that two year old case, effectively snatching the role of lead CSI. But in truth, Edward wasn't _really_my boss, not the one I had been dying to throttle for the last three years, that would be one Mr. Tyler Crowley. He was the asshole that had been denying me of my promotion and I thought because Edward was lead CSI and took over the department - lab included - even under Crowley's watchful eye, that maybe I could get out of being an assistant lab tech -- seeing how we had been friends for so long - but apparently Edward didn't think that I was ready for field work yet and Crowley agreed with him. At least, that was what Alice said.

Well, I'd show him; I'd show them both. Dickheads!

We both had the same degrees in forensics, but I guess luck has never really been on my side, whereas with Edward, he got lucky all the time. He was always the one to piece together all the crucial pieces of evidence to solve whatever case he and Jasper and Alice were working on.

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Lucky Bastard.

I snapped out of my internal thoughts and headed off to the lab. Once inside, I quickly shut the door behind me and immediately went to for GC (Gas chromatography) instruments. Pulling out both bags and setting them down on the table, I quickly grabbed what supplies I needed and went to work, starting with the dirt sample I had collected.

I was about an hour into my analysis on the nail clippings when the GC machine signalled it was finished with it's analysis on the dirt. I walked over to the computer to check the results and was immediately surprised at what I read. There were several components found in the dirt I had scraped out form under the fingernails: solvents were found as well as traces of gasoline, lubricating oil, and synthetic lubricants. There was only one place in all of Seattle that contained all of these chemicals in one place.

__

I think I might have hit the mother-load!

I felt my heart start to race at the possibility that I had _indeed_found the case-breaker piece of evidence. There was nothing really significant about the actual fingernail clipping themselves other that trace amounts of the same dirt. I quickly hit print and waited the ten seconds for the analysis to print. Once the paper was in hand, I made my way over to our other computer, the one that was set up with special software to find just about any place you could possibly think of that would house these chemicals and did a search. Two minutes into my search and I found the location and it was just as I thought.

Just as I was about to hit print -- sealing my fate that I had found something that no one else did -- and doing a mental happy dance, my stomach grumbled, signalling to me that I had forgotten all about the bagel that Edward said Alice had left for me.

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Food, yeah. Celebratory bagel munching sounds good!

Keeping my GC analysis paper in hand and hitting print to print out the location I found, I left the lab in search of my bagel. I was still reeling over the fact that I, Bella Swan, had found some crucial piece of evidence, that I didn't even mind when I walked into the break-room to find Jessica eating my bagel. I could care less right now. I was on cloud nine and there was no way she could ruin it for me.

Jessica looked up at me with her mouth full of my bagel and rolled her eyes. She quickly swallowed her bite and asked, "What are you smiling about?"

I just shook my head and walked over to the frig and pulled out a bottle of water. I twisted off the cap and took a quick swig, while Jessica continuted to eat my victory bagel, but again, I just didn't care.

Deciding to rub my findings in her face, I quickly recapped the bottle and placed it back in the frig.

"Hey Jess?" I asked feigning innocence.

"What Swan?" she asked as she finished off the bagel.

"Follow me to the lab. I got something there that you have _got_ to see," I said as I waved my analysis paper in her face. She made a move to grab for it, but I quickly ducked out of her reach and went for the door.

"Na ah, not until we've reached the lab," I said and walked out. I heard her mumble something under her breath that sounded like "bitch", but followed me anyways.

The walk back to the lab was made in silence but that was just fine with me, my reward would soon make its appearance as soon as I showed her what I found. The look on her face would be priceless. There was no way she could claim the evidence findings as her own, my initials were all over the evidence bags and the analysis paperwork.

Score one for Bella!

I pushed open the door to the lab and immediately halted my steps when I found Alice, Jasper and Edward all crowded around the computer with the GC results displayed. Edward was holding my location print out in his hand and his eyes were switching back and forth between the paper and the computer screen.

"Edward, I don't know what to make of this anaylsis. I didn't find this," Jasper said looking up at him. Edward looked back down at the paper in his hand then looked over at Alice who just shook her head at him.

Jessica bumped into my back, causing me to stumble quite loudly into the lab.

"Dammit Bella, you can't just stand in the doorway!" she yelled before she caught onto why I was frozen in place.

"Oh, hi guys," she said sweetly.

__

Gag me with a spoon!

"Which one of you found this?" Jasper asked as he looked up from the computer screen to search our eyes for recognition. Alice and Edward's eyes were trained on Jessica while Jasper was staring intently at me.

I timidly raised my hand like a fourth grader would to answer her teacher.

Three new pairs of eyes settled on me.

"Uh....me?"

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**_A/N: Reviews = happy writers. Please put smiles on our faces!!!_**


	4. Chapter 4

**_A/N: Alright readers, here is your weekly chapter of our lovely story. Again, Fate Lowe writes EPOV and I write BPOV. This week is Edward! Enjoy!_**

**_Disclaimer: We own nothing but the plot._**

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EPOV

Emmett and I entered the elevator, the soothing sounds of my favorite classical music still sounding through the speakers.

"God, why do they play this shit in here? It's depressing!"

"Just because it isn't that crap you listen to, doesn't mean it isn't worth listening to."

"Oh sorry didn't mean insult your old man music there Ace."

We chuckled, still bantering back and forth about the music, as we exited into the upstairs hallway. I was so caught up in our conversation that I ran right into someone, who had just stepped around the corner.

"Oh sorry, Stanley, didn't see you there."

"Oh, no problem Eddie. It was completely my fault."

She smiled up at me with a sickeningly flirtatious smile.

"So, how is the case coming? You know I'm always available if you need _anything_."

"We'll get it solved. But, you look busy, I'll let you get going."

With that I turned and hurried down the hall, a laughing Emmett trailing me. When we finally got to the lounge, Emmett let me have it.

"So, _Eddie_," he put extra emphasis on the nickname that he knew I hated, "looks like Stanley's still after you."

"Oh shut it, Em. You know that I'd never do anything with a co-worker."

We grabbed a couple of chairs at the table as he started in on his bagel.

"So, all of your co-workers are off limits. What about the klutzy Swan?"

That made me pause. I stared open mouthed at Emmett, as he continued to chew. Finally I got my mind working again. I put on an indifferent mask.

"What about her?"

"Come on dude. We all see how you look at her, well except for her. Why do you think that Stanley is always on her like she is? Jealous cow. Plus, I never bought that line of BS that you tried selling as to why you moved back."

"What line? Me wanting to be close to my family is not BS."

"Dude, you passed up a major job opportunity, to come here. Any lab in the world would be happy to have you, but instead you come back to this little place, just to be near family. Come on, nobody does that unless there is a girl involved."

"I still don't see what you are talking about. I barely even talk to her. I wouldn't even know her if it weren't for Alice."

"Whatever dude, I'm obviously not going to get anything out of you."

With that, Emmett got up to throw his trash away. We headed to the campfire room to go over some of the evidence again. Hoping that, with a fresh set of eyes, we might just come up with something. Jasper Whitlock, our 2nd Lead CSI and my sister's fiance, was standing in front of the wall of pictures.

"Hey, Jasper, anything new?" I asked.

"Naw, nothin'." he drawled in his thick southern accent.

"Well, come on. I'll show you what I've got on the bodies so far. Then you guys can observe the internal exams, see if we come up with anything." Emmett said.

The three of us made our way down to the morgue.

Bella was finishing up with the second body as we walked in. We walked over to the first, so that Emmett could show Jasper what I had already seen earlier. Jasper picked up an evidence bag, that looked like it had fingernail clippings in it, and cleared his throat.

"What's this?"

Bella's head shot up and a look of _panic?_ came across her face when she saw what he was holding.

"Nothing." she said quickly, as she came around and took the bag from him, making him flinch. She grabbed up the other one, and prepared to leave.

"That's not nothing Bella; that looks like nail clippings. Did you find something on the body that we missed?"

She turned back to face us holding up her left hand, where her nails had just been clipped.

"Umm...no. Those are my nail clippings."

I looked from her small hand back to her face, raising an eyebrow, clearly showing that I didn't believe her a bit. But, I decided not to voice my opinion and just nodded my head. Her pager went of a second later. She groaned as she put on her lab coat. Emmett and Jasper were laughing, at what I had no clue. I was completely engrossed in watching her, wondering what she was up to. She paused at the door and turned to look at us before she left.

"You know, one of these days, it won't be me you're laughing at."

_Whoa, they have unleashed feisty Bella._

Once she was gone, I turned back to them.

"What the hell, is so damn funny?"

"You've got it baaad." Emmett sing-songed.

"Yeah, why don't you just tell her already?"

"He has to admit it to himself first. He might be a world-class CSI but when it comes to that girl and his feelings he is completely clueless."

"Alright, alright, enough bashing on Edward. Let's get to work."

I spent the next hour observing the autopsies on the two Jane Does. Although, I couldn't tell you anything about either one of them. My thoughts were upstairs, with Bella.

_Why did she act so weird about the clippings? I know they weren't hers. Oh well, I guess I'll figure that out later._

My mind began to wander to other things.

_I don't know what those two are talking about? I'm not confused about Bella. I've known her for seven years. She's Alice's best friend, my co-worker. She's the girl in high school that stood out when she tried to blend in, the one that I caught every time she fell down. She was the girl that dated Jacob Black. God I hated that guy! Bella "Klutz" Swan, her beautiful mahogany hair, chocolate brown eyes that held so many secrets, skin that looked like it was pure porcelain. She was shy, playful, intelligent, kind, beautiful blushing Bella. My Bella. Whoa, where did that come from?_

I was snapped out of my musings by Emmett's booming laughter. I looked up to see my two best friends, clutching their sides and holding on to each other to keep from falling over in a fit of laughter.

"What the hell, guys?"

"Dude...we've...been tryin'...to get your...attention...for like...ten minutes." Emmett got out between laughter.

Jasper calmed down and wiped the tears out of his eyes.

"Yeah, you just stood there with this goofy looking smile plastered across your face. Come on, let's go upstairs and see if anybody has anything new."

Jasper and I made our way upstairs. We walked along the hallway, entering the GC department. I noticed a piece of paper laying on the printer. I picked it up and looked at it. It was a bird's eye view map and an address. I glanced over at the computer closest to me and noticed the same thing on the screen.

"Hey, Edward, take a look at this."

I walked over to the GC computer, where Jasper was standing. I looked at the screen and couldn't believe my eyes. Just then, Alice bounced in.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

When we didn't answer, she walked over. I heard the door open again but kept looking back and forth between the screen and the paper in my hand.

"Edward, I don't know what to make of this analysis. I didn't find this." Jasper said looking up at me. I looked back down at the paper again before glancing over at Alice. She just shook her head.

There was a commotion at the door and then I heard Jessica's voice.

"Dammit Bella, you can't just stand in the doorway!"

Jessica looked up and her anger was quickly hidden with fake innocence.

"Oh, hi guys." she said, staring straight at me. The sweetness in her voice made my teeth hurt.

_Yep, time for a dentist appointment._

"Which one of you found this?"

I was still thinking about that appointment when Bella slowly raised her hand. My eyes immediately found hers.

"Uh...me?" she said, framing it into a question.

A smile spread quickly across my face.

"Where?" Jasper asked.

"The fingernail clippings from the first vic." I said quietly.

Bella nodded her head. A small, black blur ran past me. Next thing I know, Alice had a hold of Bella's hands and was jumping up and down in front of her.

"You just gave us a great lead Bella! OhmyGod!"

I watched as Bella got caught up in the pixie's excitement and started bouncing with her. They hugged each other before Alice turned back to us. She grabbed the print out from me and the one that Bella was holding.

"I'm gonna fax these over to Charlie. That way he can get a warrant, and him, Rose and Jake can meet us there."

She turned and ran down the hall. I turned back to Bella, who was on the receiving end of Stanley's glare-o-death. Jasper chuckled beside me before walking up to Bella and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Well done." he said before walking out.

I put my mask back in place before clearing my throat. Bella looked up at me. I started walking past her. Before I left the room, I turned back.

"Bella?"

"Yes?"

"Wrap things up here and come to my office. Make sure you bring copies of your findings with you."

I walked back to my office and pulled out Bella's personnel folder. I pulled out a thin piece of laminated paper and put the folder back in the drawer. As I was closing it up, I heard a knock on my door.

"Come in."

Bella walked in hesitantly.

"Here's the copies that you wanted."

"Thank you. Have a seat, Bella."

I took the papers from her as she sat down. I leaned back in my chair and studied her findings again. She sat there silently with her head down. I put the papers down and rested my elbows on the desk, leaning over.

"Bella, look at me."

She slowly raised her head and met my eyes.

_God, I could drown in those._

I smiled at her semi-fearful expression and laughed softly.

"Why are you scared Bella?"

"Because I didn't follow procedure by letting one of you know what I had found."

"And, why didn't you?"

"Because I wanted to show everyone that I can do this. I'm ready to be a CSI. I've been ready since I graduated; I'm tired of being a lab assistant!"

I chuckled at her little outburst.

"I would say that I'm sorry, but I'm not."

"Nor should you be. You did a wonderful job. Apparently I underestimated your observation skills."

She smiled at that.

"Yes you did."

I sat there for a minute just enjoying being there with her.

_God, she really is beautiful. Why haven't I noticed that before._

She broke me out of my reverie by saying, "Well, if that's all, I'll be going."

She stood to leave, but I reached up and grabbed her hand.

"No wait," I stood up and walked around my desk. "Here."

I handed here the CSI trainee badge that I had pulled out earlier. She looked down at it, her eyes growing huge.

"Is this what I think it is?" she said, searching my eyes.

I smiled. "Congratulations, Bella."

She jumped up and wrapped her arms around my neck. My arms instinctively wrapped around her. I was surrounded by her smell.

_Mmm, freesias and lavender, my new favorite smell._

Suddenly she dropped her arms and stepped away.

"Sorry, I'm just so happy."

"You have nothing to apologize for. Come on, follow me."

I took her hand and walked to the campfire room, carrying her findings. When we got there, I handed them to her along with two pushpins.

"Post your findings CSI Swan."

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**_A/N: Good chapter huh? I think Fate Lowe did a fantastic job. Please leave a kind review, they make us smile! BPOV next week!_**


	5. Chapter 5

**_A/N: Ok readers, here's our next chapter. It's BPOV, so it's written by me! Thank you to those of you who reviewed last week! It was much appreciated! AND, to the new readers we picked up along the way as well._**

**_Disclaimer: We own nothing but the plot!_**

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BPOV

I couldn't believe it; I just couldn't. All my years of college, the countless internships at the labs and morgues, all of it was now resting in my hands.

_Well, it's about _damn_ time!_

I continued to stare at the laminated CSI trainee badge as I walked into my office. I closed the door behind me and walked over to my desk, dropping the badge on top of a pile of case folders. This day had been surreal for me. Talking to Edward, finding the key piece of evidence, locating what could possibly be the actual crime scene, getting the CSI trainee badge, hugging Edward.....Edward hugging me back. My thoughts stayed there as I sat down at my desk. I think that was only one of a handful of times that me and Edward had ever hugged.

The first time was when Alice and I had graduated high school - he hugged her first of course - the second time was when Alice and I drove him to the airport to see him off to college later that summer. I could still hear his words in my head as he hugged me, _"Take care of my sister and yourself."_ Well, Alice and I took care of each other over the next four years of college. Edward would always email Alice to check in our progress and he would tell her about his. Whenever he came home for visits though, we rarely, and I mean _rarely_ spoke to one another. It was always a 'hi' or 'how are you?', but never anything more that polite pleasantries. I always thought he only put up with me because I was his sister's best friend, but that changed with our third hug - at least I thought so.

The whole Cullen family as well as Charlie and I flew out to Edward's graduation. When the ceremony ended and the graduates came rushing outside where all the families patiently waited for them, Edward finally emerged through a sea of bodies and once he spotted Alice's spiky black hair, he made a beeline right towards us. I watched as Alice and Esme's faces lit up with seeing him in his cap and gown up close, but I noticed their faces took on one of surprise when Edward quickened his pace over to us and scooped me up in the first hug. He _always_ hugged Alice first. That fact was not lost on either Alice nor Esme, but I was too surprised to even notice at first. I think the realization finally hit Edward as he stepped back from our hug with a look on his face that I _still _have yet to decipher. He abruptly let go of me and went to hug Alice, then Esme. I soon came to realize though, that Edward would always see me as Alice's best friend and nothing more, because after that moment, Edward never really talked to me again. We only started to really converse - and I use that term loosely - after he got the job here and started working. Even when Alice and I picked him up from the airport when he finally moved back, he just nodded his head at me and that was it. Maybe it was seeing me day in and day out at the lab that he realized he would have to talk to me.

Some things will always remain a mystery to me when it comes to Edward Cullen.

I was snapped out of my memories to the sound of my office phone ringing. I dug the heels of my hands into my eyes to try and erase the images of Edward that were floating behind them.

I picked up after the second ring. "Swan," I said as I cradled the phone between my head and shoulder.

"From what I hear, it's CSI Swan now," a familiar voice said.

I almost dropped the phone at the sound of his voice. "Jake?"

"Of course Bells, who else would it be? Expecting someone else?" he laughed.

"Oh, um....no. You just surprised me. I thought you and Charlie would already be at the location I found," I stammered. Even though Jake and I hadn't dated in years and ended our relationship on good terms, he still made me nervous sometimes.

Don't ask me why; I haven't a clue either.

"Actually Bells, that's one of the reasons I was calling. How did you figure it out?" he asked.

"Oh, that's easy. The dirt I found held trace amounts of gasoline and synthetic oil in it. There's only one place in Seattle where the soil is contaminated like that, the Brown Waste-Lands," I explained.

I could hear a car door open in the background, then heard it close just as quickly.

"Are you on your way now?" I asked.

"Yeah, Charlie just got the warrant; we're heading there now. So as to the other reason I was calling..."

A knock came at my door, effectively cutting Jake off from finishing his statement. "Hang on a sec, Jake," I said as I put my hand over the receiver. "Come in," I said. The door opened slowly and Edward's head poked in. "Got a second?" he asked.

I held up one finger and he nodded as he opened the door and came in. I watched him as he sat in the chair across from my desk, looking perfectly at ease in my office. I shook my head at the sudden thoughts that bombarded my head of Edward taking me on my desk.

_Stupid Bella! It's never gonna happen!_

I turned my attention back to my phone call. "So what were you saying?" I asked.

"I was just about to ask if you were free tomorrow night?" Jake asked. I could hear the wind from him driving in the background. I flicked my gaze toward Edward for a second before looking down at my desk calendar to check the date.

"Yeah, I'm actually off tomorrow. Thank god!" I said. I heard Edward chuckle silently from across the desk and gave him a pointed glare. He held up his hands in mock surrender before his lips twitched again in silent laughter.

"Good, good. So I was wondering if you wanted to grab some dinner? Maybe discuss your promotion? It's actually kind of exciting to think we could actually work together side by side now. You know Charlie will love it," he joked.

"Yeah, dinner sounds good Jake; I do feel like celebrating it," I said as I saw Edward stiffen in the chair out of the corner of my eye.

"Awesome, so I'll pick you up around six?"

"Yeah, I'll see you then. Bye Jake."

"Bye Bells," he said.

I replaced the phone back onto its cradle and chanced a look over at Edward, who now had a scowl on his face.

"What's up?" I asked as I straightened out the folders on my desk.

I watched as Edward flinched at my question. "Oh, um, I just got word from Rose that they got the warrant and are heading over to the location, but I guess you already knew that," he said as he cocked one eyebrow at me.

"Yeah, Jake told me. He wanted to know how I found the location."

"Not all he wanted to know," Edward muttered quietly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked as I hastily shoved the folders in my side desk drawer.

Edward exhaled loudly. "Nothing, I came in here to ask you to come with us. It was your findings that led us there; it only seems fair to have you with the team. Besides, you might find another piece of evidence that we missed," he joked.

I ducked my head and blushed at his statement, thinking it was a compliment. "Um, are you sure? I've only done mock crime scenes before. How do you know I won't mess up the scene?" I asked.

"I trust you Bella; I wouldn't offer this if I didn't think you were ready for it. Tyler agrees as well; he couldn't refute the evidence that _you_ found. Besides, I looked into your college transcripts and internships; you never once had a problem. Like you said earlier, you've been ready since graduation," he said smirking.

"Damn straight!" I blurted out, immediately clamping my hand over my mouth.

"It's ok Bella," Edward laughed. "Come on, we need to get suited up." With that he stood up from the chair and walked over to the door. I pushed my chair back and stood, quickly looking around my desk for something, I just didn't know what.

"What are you looking for?"

I glanced up at him for a second before returning to my search for the unnamed item I was looking for. "Oh, um, I don't actually know. I just feel like I'm forgetting something," I said pushing papers around.

"You're badge perhaps?"

"That's it! Now where did I...." I trailed off as I opened my top desk drawer. "Bingo!" I said as I grabbed it out, slamming the drawer closed. I clipped it on to one of my belt loops and walked around the desk.

"Ready!" I said. I was clearly excited that I was finally going to a real crime scene.

Edward laughed as he opened the door. "I see that!" he laughed as held the door open. I walked out ahead of him and saw Alice bouncing her way down the hall towards us.

"So excited! This has been three years in the making Bella!!" she said as she flitted over to me and threw an arm across my shoulders, which was a feat, because Alice was several inches shorter than me.

We started walking down the hall to the elevators with Edward trailing behind us. "Yeah, I still don't understand why you got hired as a CSI right out of college and I didn't," I said as I stepped away from Alice to push the down button.

I turned to see Alice and Edward exchanges glances at one another. "What?" I asked looking from Alice to Edward.

Alice stared at me for a second with an innocent expression upon her face before saying, "Nothing."

_Yeah right!_

That's Alice's classic _'I shouldn't tell you, 'cause you'll be mad' _look.

"Spill it pixie!" I said as the elevator dinged.

The doors slowly opened behind me and I watched as Edward grimaced at Alice before walking by me and into the elevator.

"Later," she said following Edward in.

I turned on my heel and walked in as Edward pressed the button for the sub-basement. The doors closed in front of us and the elevator started its decent. I could see Alice fidgeting out of the corner of my eye. She only fidgeted when she was nervous about telling me something.

I heard Edward exhale loudly behind me and I turned to look at him only to see that he had the bridge of his nose pinched between his thumb and forefinger. Not a good sign.

"You might as well tell her Alice. At least hearing it from us won't hurt as much," he said softly.

_What in the name of holy germ cells were they__ talking about?_

I turned to Alice expectantly and waited for her to say something. She looked up at me with such sympathy in her eyes. I had only seen that look once. It was the same look she gave me when she heard the news from her dad about my mom being killed in a car accident and she was the one who told me. It was a look that said, _'I don't want to hurt you with this news.'_

_Fuck! This_ can't _be good_.

She took my hands in hers and gave them a small squeeze. "Bella, the reason you weren't hired as CSI with me, is because Charlie didn't want you in the field," she whispered.

_Huh?!_

I stared at her dumbfounded and turned to Edward, only to see the same look on his face, which pretty much confirmed what Alice had said was true. Edward walked over to me and placed his arm across my shoulders. I took a breath in and realized that was a big mistake, because I was instantly accosted with his scent. On the bright side, it numbed me enough that I wasn't actually all _that_ mad at them. I knew that Alice and Edward would never do anything to hurt me, which of course always lead me back to believe that Edward would never see me as anything other than Alice's best friend and his pseudo-little sister.

I felt his warm breath on my ear. "I'm sorry Bella. Please believe me when I tell you that I _did_ try to reason with him," he whispered softly. I involuntarily shuddered, not only from his proximity to me, but from the delicious feeling that stirred in my lower belly at the feeling of his warm breath against my ear.

I was knocked out of my Edward induced numbness as the elevator dinged, signalling that we had reached our destination. The doors opened and Edward squeezed my shoulders once and walked out. I turned to look at Alice and saw she had a small smile on her face. She squeezed my hands gently and let them fall in between us. It took watching her walk out of the elevator that the reality of what she just told me set in.

"What?!" I yelled just as the elevator closed in my face.

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**_A/N: Reviews are not only welcomed, but wanted as well! Thoughts? Comments? Questions? See you guys next week! EPOV!!_**


	6. Chapter 6

**_A/N: Sorry we are late, real life stepped in and had to be dealt with. But we are back with your next chapter, so here you go!_**

**_Disclaimer: We own nothing but the plot_**

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EPOV

_God, she's so adorable when she's pissed. The ferocious kitten._

To say she was pissed when Alice told her it was Charlie that had been holding her back for the past three years was an understatement: irate, livid, those were words to better described her mood. All through gathering our materials and loading our vests up, she kept mumbling to herself. I never caught anything in particular, but every once in a while I would smirk at her mumbling.

On the way to the Brown Waste-Lands, Bella was silent. Alice and Jasper kept looking at me, silently asking me if she was alright. I would just nod my head in their direction, telling them to let her handle it and to not ask her anything.

We arrived within thirty minutes of leaving the crime lab. I could see Jacob and Charlie standing just inside the crime tape talking.

I opened my door and got out, immediately going around to the back of the SUV and lifting the hatch. Alice and Jasper came around and grabbed their equipment and went straight for the crime scene. After shutting the door behind her, Bella came around and stood beside me for a second as she slowly inhaled and exhaled.

I grabbed my evidence case and turned toward her. "You remember your training?" I asked quietly.

She turned and looked at me for a second before nodding her head. "Sorry, I'm a little bit overwhelmed at the moment. I'll be ok," she said as she straightened out and grabbed the case that had been lying next to mine.

We each grabbed at camera and slung them almost simultaneously onto to our right shoulders. You'd think we had planned that, but it was just a coincidence. We started walking toward the crime scene side by side when Bella stopped for a second. I halted my steps and looked back at Bella, who had the scariest look I had ever seen on her face. I looked to where she was staring and saw Charlie and Jacob who were still engaged in conversation and didn't even realize we were there yet. I was thankful that the look on Bella's face was not aimed at me.

I watched as she rounded her shoulders and headed straight for them. I followed close behind her as she stomped her way over to Charlie and Jacob. She ducked quickly under the crime tape and stopped right in front of her father and glared with barely restrained anger.

"What the Hell!?"

"Oh, hey Bells. Uh, congratulations on your promotion," Charlie stammered, he was obviously a little surprised that she was there. I watched his eyes as they took in the sight of her in her new CSI gear. The vest that she was wearing had her last name embroided on it. I was sure Alice had something to do with that. She had been confident over the years that Bella would prove herself to the higher-ups that she was made for this job and had made sure that she had a vest waiting for that day to finally come.

"Don't give me that. You never wanted me out here to begin with!"

Charlie glanced over at me with a pleading look on his face. I just gave him an _'I told you so' _look.

"Now, Bells, why don't you just calm down. He has his reasons." Jacob said, coming to Charlie's aid when I refused to.

"Calm down, you want me to calm down!?"

A sudden look of realization came over her face.

"You agree with him don't you? I cannot believe you Jacob Black! You can so forget about dinner tomorrow."

_Yes!_

Jacob looked momentarily stunned at her statement. I could for the life of me figure out what she ever saw in him, but right now, I didn't care.

With a smile, I ducked under the crime tape and I turned to Bella.

"Alright, let's get to work. Bella, get the camera ready. You're with me."

With her head held high and her chin up-tilted just a bit, we left Charlie and Jacob and walked slowly through the Brown Waste-Lands. Bella was already snapping pictures left and right at almost everything that caught her eye. She was almost like a robot that was programmed to seek out evidence and collect it. She had even pulled out her latex gloves and already had them on. If I didn't know better, I'd say she was trying to one-up me.

"Edward, look," she said as she squatted down in front of me.

I stopped and looked at what Bella was staring at. It was a set of tire prints with two distinct drag marks leading away from us.

"Good eye, Bella."

After photographing the tire marks, making molds of the treads, and measuring them, we followed the drag marks, snapping photos the whole way. They led us to a run-down, little shack that was nestled in the wooded area surrounding the Waste-lands. I walked up to knock on the door, making sure Bella was behind me. When my fist connected with the door, it swung open.

"Bella, stay here. I'm gonna clear the scene," I said as I silently handed her my case.

Bella nodded her head and took my case with her other hand. I drew my gun out of my hip holster and eased my way into the dark room, mindful of any movement within. When I cleared the scene, Bella entered.

"Alright, let's get started. You take the perimeter. I'll cover in here," I said grabbing my case from her.

"On it."

She walked back outside and left me to myself. I always did work best alone. I set my case down and opened it up. I unzipped a pocket from my vest and pulled out a pair of gloves. After I pulled them on, I turned on my flashlight and started slowly scanning the room, flagging tiny pieces of potential evidence, photographing them where they lay, then collecting and cataloguing them. There was a lot to go through, but now that I was in the zone, everything faded away until it was just me and the evidence at my feet, begging me to figure it out. I was just about to finish up collecting some blood I had found, when something caught my eye.

A tiny piece of laminated plastic was poking out from underneath a couch that was pushed up against the wall. As I bent down to photograph it, something familiar about caught my eye. I snapped my photo quickly and picked it up. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. There in my hands, was Lauren Mallory's Crime Lab ID. Grabbing my phone from my pants pocket, I immediately beeped Jacob.

"Black," he said.

"Jake, I think we might have just caught a break."

"Whadda got?"

"I'm in a little shack a ways down from where you and Charlie are. Gotta say, the person who potentially did this, is a lot more stupid them I ever thought she'd be."

"She?" he asked.

"Yeah, you heard right. We're looking for a female, by the name of Lauren Mallory. I just found her crime lab ID amongst other things. She's one of my fucking employees. Send Charlie to the lab and make sure she's still there and stays put. I need you to send another office over there, or you can do it yourself, but make sure her car is in the parking lot just in case. From the tire treads Bella found, I'm pretty sure they will match to her car."

"You got it."

I slipped my phone back into my pocket just as Bella walked into the shack. I watched as she surveyed the area.

"Wow."

"Yeah and your never gonna believe what I just found," I said smirking.

She set her case down by the inside on the door and took her gloves off.

"Let me guess, you just found a piece of evidence that told you we were looking for a female suspect?"

_The fuck?_

My jaw dropped at her assumption.

Well there went my victory dance that I just cracked the case.

"Don't be so shocked Edward. While you were in here for the better part on two hours," she paused as I shook my head and glanced down at the watch on the wrist.

_Son-of-a-bitch._

"Anyways, I already finished mapping outside, collected all the evidence I could find, snapped a photo of every inch of the perimeter, so I decided to go ahead and scan the tire treads I found in the computer in the back on the SUV."

I think my jaw was threatening to detach at the moment. She walked over and lifted her hand to my chin to snap my jaw back into place.

"Drop want to catch flies do you?" she smirked.

"What..." I cleared my throat. "What did you find?"

"Let's just say that Jasper and Alice are on their way back to the lab with Jacob as we speak to go over what I found."

"Have something to do with this?" I asked as I held up Lauren's ID card.

Bella's jaw dropped a little before she quickly snapped it shut and just nodded her head.

"I see great minds _do_ think alike," I said as I looked my gaze with hers. Her cheeks flushed with the slightest color of pink and I swear heart skipped at beat witnessing it.

I quickly shook my head at the racy images of Bella and I that were bombarding my head and secured the ID card.

We returned to the Lab shortly after Bella and I made our shocking discovery. Bella went to find Stanley, to have her run the evidence that we collected. I know that she liked that. Finally being in a position to tell Jessica what to do, priceless. I even had her take Lauren's ID card to fingerprint it as I went down to the basement garage where Jasper was going over Lauren's car with a fine tooth comb.

Exiting the elevator, I walk over to a table that had a few evidence bags laying atop of it. I picked up a clear bag that held some hair samples inside.

"I found the hair embedded in the carpet of the trunk. I also lifted fingerprints from every surface that I could." Jasper says, from behind me as I laid down the hair samples and continued scan the evidence that Jasper had collected and bagged.

"Plus, I just found this."

I turned around, Jasper was standing there with a lead pipe in his hands, blood evident all over its surface.

"Where did you find that?" I asked as I quickly pulled on some gloves and took it from his outstretched hand.

"Fastened to the chassis. It looked out of place for the model, so I took it off and tested it. Positive for human blood. I'm gonna send it down to the lab where Alice can compare it to the vics."

"Great job. I'm going to go question our suspect," I said as I handed the pipe back to Jasper and pulled off my gloves.

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**_A/N 2: Reviews make us happy!! Thoughts, comments, all are welcome!_**


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N: Sorry again guys, but real life has been kickin our butts, we may have to place another week in between posts to try and catch up, but stay with us, after the next two chapters, things should start moving rather quickly! So, if we don't post in the next two weeks, don't worry, we are not abandoning this story, Fate Lowe is in the process of moving and planning her wedding, cut the girl some slack!**_

_**Disclaimer: We own nothing but the plot.**_

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BPOV

I hadn't meant to make Edward feel bad, as his eyes had told me at the crime scene. I was just too eager to have actually been to a real one to contain my enthusiasm. I hadn't realized how quickly I had finished until the ground below my feet was littered with evidence bags and my camera was almost full of crime scene shots.

I had decided to scan the tire treads into the computer in the back of the SUV to see if I could get a hit off Codes and was surprised when three hits came up in the Seattle region alone. I had never seen these particular tires before; they were Nitto INVO tires, specialty grade and expensive to boot. Two of the hits were to cars that I cross-checked to reveal that the cars they belonged to were actually in our impound lot from old solved cases from six months ago. The third hit was what threw me for a loop. There was no way this was correct, but after the third time of me scanning and cross-checking, I quickly came to the conclusion that our own Lauren Mallory was indeed here at the crime scene at _some_ point recently.

I quickly called Alice and let her known of my findings and told her to get back to the lab asap.

"Make sure Jasper processes the car," I said.

"You got it. Hey, Bella," Alice paused.

I looked over to the small rundown shack to see if Edward was finished yet. "Yeah?" I asked.

"Do you think she did it?" she asked in a small voice.

"Not sure Alice. From what I found, her car was here at some point, but other than that, I don't know. Edward might have found something in that shack, but he hasn't finished processing it yet," I said.

"All right. Well, we'll head on back to the lab then. See you there later?" Alice asked. I could hear her packing up her case in the background.

"Yeah, later," I said and shut my phone.

When I looked into Edward's eyes as I told him how quickly I had finished, he looked like someone had just kicked his puppy.

_Damn, I think my heart just cracked a little._

I hadn't meant to be so eager; I just couldn't help it. Our ride back to the lab was silent, with neither of us saying anything. As soon as we got into the lab I raced off down to the Trace Evidence Lab - that I no longer officially worked in, thank you very much - telling Edward I want to show off my findings and rub it in Jessica's face. I saw Edward smirk at my comment out of the corner of my eye as I ran off.

When I finally reached the lab, I noticed that Jessica wasn't there. I looked across the hall to see Alice talking with Angela. Angela was our Fingerprint expert and could lift a print off of just about anything. I saw Alice hand over what appeared to be a pipe of some sort.

_Hmmm. Isn't that what Emmett said was used on the vics?_

I continued to watch as Angela went towork on the pipe and Alice quickly placed all the other fingerprint sheets on her table for her to go through. I shook my head and went to work unloading all the evidence bags on the table.

_Looks like I will be analyzing my own evidence. Good thing, though. Wouldn't want Jessica to possibly fuck something up, like I know she would just to spite me._

I was brought out of my thoughts when Alice made her entrance in the lab.

"Jasper found the pipe fastened to the chassis of the car," she said coming to a halt beside me.

"Oh good," I said somewhat dejectedly.

"As soon as Angela is done, she's gonna bring it over here for Trace. Speaking of, where's Jessica?"

I just shrugged my shoulders; I didn't actually care about her at the moment. I was too busy sorting through all the evidence in front of me to give a damn about Jessica. I could hear Alice talking about something, but none of the words registered in my brain. I was too focused on the task at hand.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and flinched at the contact. I whipped my head towards Alice, who was staring at me wide-eyed.

"Did you hear anything I just said?" she asked softly.

I shook my head. "Sorry, I guess I am just out of it all the sudden," I said pinching the bridge of nose.

"Well look, you haven't opened any of the evidence bags yet, so why don't you go on home and rest. Just sign off on the log and I can handle sorting through all this and take care of processing the pipe," she said rubbing circles softly along my back.

It was so tempting an offer. I think the adrenaline rush from doing my first crime scene was wearing off and I was suddenly feeling very much exhausted from all the excitement I had gone through today. Plus, Alice always was my voice of reason and right now, I was going to take her up on her offer, only....

"But you've never done Trace before," I said.

Alice giggled slightly. "Silly Bella, I did Trace for two years on night shift. I never told you that?"

"You probably did; I was probably to pissed off with Jessica at the time for my brain to register the information."

"Go home, Edward won't mind. But, I am coming over later so we can celebrate your promotion. I'll bring the wine!" she said with a huge smile plastered across her face.

"A drink actually sounds good right now," I said rubbing my eyes.

"It's settled them."

I smiled at her and gave her a hug, which she returned somewhat hesitantly. I stepped back and offered another smile for moving away and grabbing the evidence log. Quickly signing off and handing itto Alice, I started heading for the door before I paused with my hand on the door handle.

"I'll see you later?" I asked as I turned to see her already signing the log.

Alice looked up from the log. "Of course. Take a hot bath and a nap. I'll be there around seven," she said as she set aside the log and started to reach for the first bag of evidence.

"Ok," I said and with that I opened the door and walked out.

I walked over to Angela to let her know I was heading out for the day and to let her know that Alice was taking over the Trace evidence of the pipe. She just nodded and smiled and I made my way down to the locker room.

_Hot bath sounds really good, but sleep sounds even better._

I was completely wrapped up in my inner thoughts as I stepped off of the elevator, that I didn't even notice the body that I just slammed into. Large hands encircled my hips, as an electric current shot through my body.

"You ok Bella?"

My head snapped up and my brown eyes came to rest on Edward's green ones.

"Huh?"

I couldn't seem to think with his hands still placed on my body. All I could think about was that I could feel his pulse through his fingers where they were splayed across my hips.

"I asked if you were ok," he said softly, bending ever so slightly so that we were eye level. I didn't think he noticed that he was still holding on to me, but I sure as shit did. Like I said, all I could think about was his pulse as it thumped lightly against my hips.

I looked down at his hands, marveling at how they seemed to dwarf my waist. That was about the same time he noticed too, because his hands abruptly left my hips and he stepped back from me. I swear his handprintshad been branded into my skin - even through my clothes - because I could still feel the heat.

"Sorry. So, you ok?" he asked.

"Um, yeah. Alice thought it would be a good idea for me to cut out early, so I am taking her advice," I said twisting my hands together as I suddenly thought it might be polite to ask my 'supervisor' if I could leave.

I looked up at Edward hesitantly. "Is it ok if I leave? I mean, I signed off on the evidence log and Alice assured me that she could take care of it since Jessica is no where to be found and..."

"Bella, slow down," Edward said gently placing his hands on my shoulders.

"Of course it's ok. I'm pretty sure you've had enough excitement for one day. You'll need your rest if you are going to be out in the field with us on a daily basis."

I exhaled loudly, not even noticing that I had been holding my breath. I nodded and stepped around him as his hands fell from my shoulders.

_Rest, yes, rest sounds good! And a glass of wine.....which reminds me....._

"Hey Edward?" I asked softly as I turned and watched him walk into the elevator.

"Yeah?" he asked as he placed one hand on the door to keep it open.

"Umm, I know you'll be busy later, what with the questioning and the mounds of new evidence," I paused as I started to rub my hands rather roughly against one another to try and quell my mind from what I was actually about to ask him.

"What is it Bella?"

The tone he used made my eyes snap up to his and I was slightly confused by what I saw.

"Well, Alice is coming over later tonight to celebrate my promotion and umm...." I paused again looking down at my hands which were now an angry red color from the friction of my palms rubbing against one another.

"Yes?"

"Well, I am pretty sure that Jasper will be there and if Jasper is there, then I know that Emmett will be there and if Emmett is there then..."

"I wouldn't miss it," he said immediately cutting off my rambling.

I looked up to see Edward smiling at me and I swear my heart stopped for a brief instant. The quote: _'Be still my heart', _rang loudly in my head.

"Uh, ok, yeah, um..."

"Bella?"

"Yeah?" I asked quietly.

"Go home," Edward said somewhat sternly, but the smile on his face gave him away.

I felt my cheeks burn slightly and ducked my head to try and cover my flushed skin.

"Bye Edward," I muttered and quickly turned and headed for the locker room. I distinctly heard a soft chuckle behind me as I rounded the corner, but didn't turn around to see if it came from Edward.

I had just finished grabbing all of my things out of my locker and closed the door when it suddenly hit me. Edward was coming over to my apartment.

_Oh shit!_

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_**A/N 2: Reviews = happy authors!! Comments? Questions?**_


	8. Chapter 8

**_A/N: We own nothing but the plot. Thanks for sticking around while we tried to figure out how to balance real life and this story. Sorry we didn't give you guys a heads up about the hiatus. We apologize. Hopefully we can get back up to a regular posting schedule again. So...here's the next chapter brought to you tonight by Fate Lowe!!!_**

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EPOV

After throwing my gloves into the trash bin, I exited the room and made my way back up to the lab. As I walked through the hall, I noticed Alice talking to Angela while Bella was in the Trace lab by herself.

_Wonder where Stanley is?_

I shook my head and continued on to the interrogation room, where I found Charlie waiting outside staring into the room. I stopped just next to him and peered in.

Lauren sat at the table looking completely calm while Jacob stood opposite her with his hands braced palm down on the table, leaning into her. I noticed Rosalie standing in the far corner behind Lauren with her arms crossed over her chest with a smug look on her face.

"Any luck?" I asked quietly.

"Not much so far. Jake's been grillin' her for the better part of twenty minutes and she hasn't cracked yet," Charlie replied.

Rosalie looked up from the scene in front of her and caught my eye. I lifted my chin slightly, letting her know I wanted to talk to her. She stepped away from the wall and made her way over to Jacob, whispering softly into his ear. He nodded once at her and she left the room as Jacob pulled the extra chair away from the wall and sat down across from her.

Rosalie walked out and shut the door quietly behind her.

"Bitch is a fucking mute," she grumbled as she pulled at the hem of her suit jacket.

"I take it you haven't questioned her yet?" I asked.

She smiled at me. "Not yet. Jake won the coin toss as to who had the first crack."

I nodded and continued to watch as Jacob questioned Lauren. Her eyes were downcast the entire time, never leaving the table top. Though, at one point, I noticed her neck muscles twitch.

"Go in and ask Jacob to say or ask her what he just did and to keep pushing the subject. I think I saw the kink her her armor," I asked.

Rosalie just nodded and opened the door walking back in. I signaled Charlie to follow me into the room beside the interrogation room, the one built with a one-way mirror and sound equipment so you could hear what was going on in the room.

We watched as Rosalie walked over to Jacob and whispered to him. I turned up the volume on the microphone and double checked to make sure that the cameras into the room were indeed recording.

"Lauren, have you seen Jessica this afternoon?" Jacob asked.

Again, her neck muscles twitched, but otherwise she remained unfazed.

"We need to find Stanley. I think that she's the key to all this. Either they are in on it together or she is trying to frame Lauren. I'm gonna go over to prints and trace to see if my team has anything new."

With that, I walked out the door and down the hall. I came across Angela Webber in prints first.

"Hey Angela do you have anything for me yet?"

"As a matter of fact, I was just about to come and look for you. I found three pairs of prints in Lauren's car, her own of course, Jessica Stanley's, and a few partials from an unknown person. I ran it through every data base and didn't find a match anywhere. The only prints that I could match it to were a full set on the pipe. I found Jessica's prints there as well. The ID Badge was covered in Lauren's prints, obviously, it is hers, but I found Jessica's prints there as well."

"Was anybody's prints but Lauren's on the driver's side on the car?"

"Yeah, Jessica's."

"Thanks Angela."

I walked across to trace to talk to Alice.

"Got anything for me sis?"

"You bet. Where would you like to start?"

"How about the hair in the trunk?"

"I got three distinct samples. Two match our vics. The other is from Newton. She got him too. That's why he hasn't shown up for work today."

"What about the blood on the pipe?"

"Two samples, both from our vics."

"That means there is a good chance that Mike is still alive. I think I can get Lauren to give us something now."

I took a folder identical to the one that Angela had handed me and left. I walked down the hall, back to interrogation. I walked into the little room where Charlie was still standing. I glanced through the one-way and noticed that Rosalie was now the one that was grilling our suspect. Jake had pulled the chair away from the table and was now just observing from the opposite side of the room. He didn't look too happy at the prospect of not getting her to crack. Charlie turned to me.

"You got anything?"

I handed him the two folders.

"Has she said anything?"

He didn't say anything, just shook his head without so much as a glance away from the new evidence. When he handed the folders back to me,I exited the room and made my way into the interrogation room. Rose turned towards me when she heard the door open. The look on her face was pure frustration.

"You look like you could use a break."

She really didn't need one and I knew that. It was just a code that we had all worked out. She glanced down at the folders I was holding and gave a small half smile. She turned to Jake and he stood up. They both left the room. I knew that they were both still standing on the other side of the one-way mirror. I pulled the chair over to the table and sat down across from Lauren, placing the folders on the table in front of me.

"Where is she Lauren?"

She just kept her gaze locked on the table top. I slid the first piece of evidence into her line of vision.

"Those tire tracks were made by the same kind of tire that you have on your car, Nitto INVO."

I placed the next one on top of that.

"Drag marks that led from those tire tracks to a small shack where this was found."

I put a picture of her ID badge on top of the growing pile. I saw her left eye twitch.

"With this evidence, we obtained a warrant for your car."

I placed a picture of the pipe on the pile, followed by pictures of the hair.

"The pipe was found strapped to the bottom of your car. The hair was embedded in the carpet of the trunk."

"That bitch." she said vehemently.

"What was that?"

"Jessica is framing me. I let her borrow my car last night. She said that she had a date with some guy that she met online. She has been so hung up on Mike that I was happy for her. I let her have the car for the night. She brought it back really late but I didn't think anything of it. When I got here this morning I realized that my ID wasn't in the center console. I put it there everyday after work. I know it was there when Jessica had the car."

"Do you have any idea where Jessica is now?"

"No."

"Do you have an alibi for last night?"

"Yes, my boyfriend Tyler was with me all night."

"We are going to need his information so we can check that out. But I don't think that you did this."

"So you believe me."

"Yes just sit here and be patient. I hope to have this cleared up soon."

I stood and walked out of the room. I shut the door behind me and looked up at everybody standing there.

"Good going, Ace. We'll check out that alibi and try to track down Jessica and this mystery guy."

"Remember that they have Mike Newton. With as obsessed as she was with him, I don't think that Jessica will hurt him but we still need to find them all."

Mystery POV

It was dark outside now. I sat in the bushes just outside of her house. I knew which one I wanted but I would have to wait as there were too many people tonight

I watched her long dark brown hair bounce as she ran to open the door for yet another guest. It was a tall man with hair that was so close to bronze that it almost had a metallic sheen to it and green eyes. She looked really excited to see him but nervous at the same time.

_Aww, how sweet. She has a crush on this guy._

I decided to find out as much as I could about him before I took her. Who knows, maybe he will make this even more fun.

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**_A/N 2: Well.....what do you guys think????_**


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N: Yes we are alive. Thank you for the requests from our readers, letting us know that you wanted the next chapter, well, here it is. We both suffered bad writer's block and had to deal with real life. This chapter was written by both of us, so...**_

_**ENJOY!**_

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BPOV

The drive back was a blur. Entering was a blur. The hot bath, yep, you guessed it, that was a blur as well. I cannot recall what happened after I had gotten out of the tub and dressed in my comfy sweats and a tank. The next thing I knew, was that there was a knocking sound coming from the living room.

When I opened my eyes, I noticed that I was in my bedroom, sprawled disgonally across my bed. I lifted my head from my pillow when I heard the knocking again. I looked around the room first, then pushed off of the bed until I was sitting back on my knees.

_Odd._

I rubbed my knuckles into my eyes to clear away some of the remenants of my nap and noticed my skin smelled like glass cleaner.

_Even odder._

"Bella...open up!" I faintly heard.

_Oh shit, Alice!_

I jumped off of my bed, stubbing my foot on my night table. "Shit!" I yelped and proceeded to stumble out of my bedroom and into the living room.

"Come on girl, open up! We got food too!"

That had to be Emmett and at the sound of the word food, my stomach decided to voice its opinion on the matter.

I was still rubbing my foot when I managed to open the door. Everyone was standing there with huge grins on their faces, each holding up an item that they had brought with them, everyone but Edward.

I straightened up. "Uh, did everyone get the day off tomorrow or something?" I asked as everyone piled into my place, depositing bags on my kitchen counter.

_Looks like we are having a party?_

"Yeah, the chief gave us all the day off thanks to you breaking the case for us." Alice said. I blushed at the praise. "What are you wearing? That so won't do. Come with me. Rose can you set up everything out here."

Alice grabbed my hand and dragged me down the hallway toward the bedroom. She threw me done at my vanity. "Brush your hair. I'll pick out something for you to wear." I did as I was told as she rummaged through my closet. She came back quickly and shoved a bundle of clothes into my arms.

"Hurry and change, we don't have much time."

"Much time for what?"

"'Til Edward gets here, silly. You want to be able to greet him when he gets here right?"

Alice had a point, so I followed her instructions. I squeezed myself into a pair of dark wash, distressed, skinny jeans and threw on the simple white, short sleeved, v-neck tunic. I sinched it around my waist with a wide black leather belt with a simple silver clasp. When I was done she sat me down at my vanity again and went to work on my hair. She pulled it up into a simple high ponytail, making my wavy brown hair bounce when I moved my head. "Thank God you have good skin. We don't need any foundation or anything." She threw on a quick coat of mascara and lined my upper lid with a glitter infused black liner, a coat a neutral lipgloss and I was done.

"I have a present of you, to celebrate your promotion." She handed me a Christian Louboutin shoebox.

"Oh, Alice, you really shouldn't have." I opened the box and gasped. "They're beautiful Alice but I could never walk in these."

"Nonsense, you'll be fine. Just put them on."

Out of the box, I pulled a beautiful pair of red patent leather, peep toe pumps. I slipped them on my feet on stood up. I tentatively took a couple of steps, before relaxing into my normal stride.

"These are really comfortable."

"See I told you now come on."

We left the room to join the others.

"Wow. Look at our Bella." Emmett said, whistling as he gave me a once over. Thankfully I was saved by the ring of the doorbell. I ran as quickly as I could to answer the door. I opened the door to find the breathtakingly handsome Edward Cullen. We stood in silence for a few minutes before he seemed to gather himself.

"Uhh...hi. I brought the wine. Alice got excited about shopping for something and forgot so I picked up a few bottles." He handed me the bag with a smile.

"Oh right, thanks." I turned to walk back to everybody and noticed that he wasn't following me. "Umm, are you coming in?" I asked.

He flinched at my question. "Uh yeah, but since I've never actually been inside before, I thought it would be polite to be invited first."

I giggled; I couldn't help it. "This is the twenty-first century Edward, not the nineteenth, but _please_, come in," I said, still laughing slightly as I moved from the door to let him pass.

As Edward crossed over the threshold he paused next to me, his shoulder just barely brushin mine. "What are you wearing?" he asked as he looked down at me.

"Huh?" I looked down at my self, checking to make sure all the goods were covered.

_Yep, all covered._

"Oh, when Alice got here, she, uh, made me change. She just gave me the heels." I replied, looking up at him.

He laughed slightly. "That must have been what she was shopping for earlier. You look great, but I wasn't talking about your clothes; I meant your perfume."

"Um, I'm not wearing any," I said as I looked down at my hands and remembered the window cleaner smell.

I blushed.

"Must be smelling the eau de window cleaner. I seemed to have cleaned the apartment when I got home, but slept so hard that I don't remember it," I said.

"No, this is a floral smell, slightly sweet too," he said as he tried to nonchalantly smell me again.

"Oh, that's my body lotion," I said as I felt my cheeks burn even more. "It's fressia scented with a hint of strawberry," I continued while shifting from one foot to the other.

"Hmm...smells good on you," he said smiling down at me.

_And que swoon._

_Swooning._

I shook myself out of swooning and waved my hand towards the kitchen where everyone was gathered around the food.

"Please, make yourself at home," I all but squeaked.

Everyone sat down to dinner in my formal dining room. I sat at the head of the table with Edward on my left and Alice on my right. Jasper sat next to the little pixie; Emmett across from him with Rosalie at the other end, between the two. The table was set with my favorite mushroom ravioli and fresh tossed salad. The first bottle of wine was equally divided between our six glasses. Before we started to eat, Edward stood up next to me and clicked his fork against his glass to get everyone's attention.

"I would like to say a few words before we eat this wonderful meal."

"Aww man."

Everyone laughed.

"Sorry Em," Edward said. "I'd like to say congratulations to the newest member of our team, Bella Swan. We all knew that you could do it and I am so proud of you. Thank you for putting up with all the crap that you did to get to this point."

We all clincked our glasses together with a cheers. I stood up, with tears in my eyes and hugged the man beside me. He wrapped his arms around me, careful not to spill anything on me. I had put my glass down, knowing that if I hadn't it would have been a repeat of his promotion party.

"Can we eat now?" Emmett asked from his seat.

Edward and I laughed as we took our seats again. Then we dug in.

Dinner was amazing; filled with lively conversation and laughter. After dinner me and the girls cleared the table while the boys settled in the living room to prepare for the next stage of our night, a murder mystery movie marathon. What else are a bunch of CSIs, a coroner, and a cop gonna do?

When Alice, Rose and I walked into the living room, we were each carrying a bottle of wine and two glasses. Alice and Rose took the seats on the couch with their significant others, handing them a glass and pouring wine. Edward was sitting in my oversized two person beanbag chair. The only other place to sit was beside him. I drew a deep breath, walked over and sat down. I handed Edward his glass and poured wine into both of our glasses.

"We decided that since there were three bottles we'd just split a bottle between two people. Since they've already paired off the way I knew they would, that leaves the two of us together."

"Fine with me."

So we got settled and started watching movies. We were all shouting out who we thought the killer was. As the night went on, and the wine disappeared, we all got more vocal and started defending our picks more vehemently.

After three movies, we decided to call it quits. As I was hugging everybody, thanking them for coming and they were walking out the door Edward offered to stay and help me clean up. As soon as I closed the door, I collapsed in a chair and took off my shoes, rubbing my feet.

"Oh that feels so good."

Edward laughed softly as he placed the wine glasses on the counter and the bottles in the recycling. Afterward he pulled up a chair in front of me and took my foot. He set it in his lap and started massaging it.

_Blush and swoon._

"Oh good, your hands are amazing!" I moaned.

Edward smirked.

_Panty slippage._

"Stop doing that."

"Doing what?" he asked, smirking again.

"That...that "look at me I'm gorgeous",panty dropping smirk."

I slapped my hands over my face, covering the insant blush that exploded on my face. Edward's hands on my feet stopped.

"Please ignore what I just said. I cannot believe that just came out of my mouth. It has to be the alcohol."

"You know that alcohol brings out the truth right?"

"Please don't mock me. I'm embarassed enough."

"I'm not mocking you; look at me."

I shook my head. I felt my foot placed on the floor and Edward's hands wrap around my wrists. He gently pried my hands away from my face and dragged me out of my chair, until I stood in front of him. He put his hands on either side of my face.

"Bella, please open your eyes."

I did so, reluctantly. When I opened my eyes, I was staring into the beautiful, sparkling, emerald green eyes of the man that I loved.

_Whoa...did I just think that. _

_Why yes, yes I did. _

_My _crush_ has been bumped up to _love_!_

"Bella, there is nothing for you to be embarrassed about. You are the smartest, wittiest, most beautiful woman that I have ever known."

I was shocked. I could not believe what I was hearing. The next thing I knew, Edward's lips were against mine and we were kissing each other for all that we were worth.

Then everything got a little blurry.

I woke up with my head pounding and the my body sore. As my mind cleared I realized that I was naked, which wouldn't normaly be a problem except I wasn't alone. I felt his arm wrapped around me tightly and his equally naked body pressed against mine. At that moment everything from the previous night flashed through my mind. I tried to get out of bed slowly, so that I didn't wake him but his arm tightened and his eyes fluttered open.

I kept my eyes shut, silently praying he would just go back to sleep. No such luck.

"Morning beautiful," he murmured softly.

I'm going to hell.

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_**Review?**_


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: We both know this chapter is long overdue and we hope you guys are still with us. Fate Lowe is bringing Edward's POV this week. So here we go...**

**Disclaimer: We do not own Twilight, but love messing with Edward and Bella!**

**Chapter 10**

EPOV

I felt her move to get out of the bed and tightened my arm around her waist to keep her beside me.

"Morning beautiful." I said as my eyes slowly opened.

She stiffened and didn't open her eyes. I wasn't really sure what was going through her mind but I could tell it wasn't good, so I let go of her. She pulled away and stood from the bed with the sheet wrapped around her body. I instantly missed having her body pressed against mine so I scooted over and sat down on the edge of the bed taking hold of her hand that wasn't holding the sheet up. She stood there silently refusing to look at me.

"Bella please look at me. Did I do something wrong? What is it?"

Her eyes slowly met mine and I could see the pain and uncertainty there.

"Edward what happened last night was..."

"What?"

She just shook her head and moved away.

"Nothing. I'm going to go take a shower."

"Ok."

She went into the bathroom and I flopped back down unto the bed. When I heard the water start running, I got up and got dressed. I decided to go make us some coffee. As I sat in the kitchen waiting for the coffee maker my mind wandered back over the events of last night.

_I picked up Bella's delicate foot and started massaging it. A slight blush spread across her cheeks._

_"Oh God, your hands are amazing."_

_I smirked at the effect that I had on her._

_"Stop doing that."_

_"Doing what?" I asked, smirking again._

_"That...that 'look at me I'm gorgeous', panty dropping smirk."_

_She slapped her hands over her face, covering the instant blush that exploded on her face. My hands on Bella's foot stopped. I could not believe that she had just said that._

_"Please ignore what I just said. I cannot believe that just came out of my mouth. It has to be the alcohol."_

_"You know that alcohol brings out the truth right?"_

_"Please don't mock me. I'm embarrassed enough."_

_"I'm not mocking you; look at me."_

_She shook her head. I placed her foot on the floor and wrapped my hands around her wrists. I gently pried her hands away from her face and dragged her out of the chair, until she stood in front of me. I put my hands on either side of her beautiful face._

_"Bella, please open your eyes." I begged._

_I could see the reluctance while she did what I asked. When her eyes opened I could see that she had just come to a very surprising realization._

_"Bella, there is nothing for you to be embarrassed about. You are the smartest, wittiest, most beautiful woman that I have ever known."_

_I watched as the shock registered clearly on her face. I realized in that moment that I had been in love with her for a very long time. I couldn't stop myself as my lips met hers in a soul searing kiss._

_ there kissing, our tongues battling for dominance. I didn't pull away until my lungs screamed for air. I pulled away gasping a huge gulp of air and looking back down at the girl in my arms. Her beautiful brown orbs stared up at me from underneath half closed lids, sparkling with joy. With my inhibitions gone and her looking at me like that, I couldn't stop what happened next._

_I picked her up and carried her down the hallway to her room. When I set her back onto the floor, I placed my hands on the sides of her face and captured her lips with mine again. Her arms wrapped around my neck, hands tangling in my hair as mine slid down her neck and chest to the belt cinched around her waist. I unfastened it and let it drop to the floor. I reached up with one hand and pulled the tie out of her hair letting it fall down her back. I pulled out of the kiss again gasping for the oxygen that my body needed._

_I slipped my shoes off and grabbed Bella around the waist. She squeaked as I pulled her into me and attacked her mouth again. Pulling away quickly, I trailed kisses along her jawline to behind her ear then continued down her throat as she moaned and bunched up my shirt in her hands, pulling me closer. I backed her up until she hit the bed. Her knees buckled and she fell backwards onto it. I removed my shirt and heard her gasp. I smirked to myself as she stared at my bared chest and abs. Her eyes slowly moved upwards until they locked with mine. I groaned, seeing the lust that had darkened her eyes. I watched as she grabbed the bottom of the shirt and lifted it above her head revealing the white lace bra underneath. She tossed it to the side and laid back removing her jeans to show the matching thong. She moved back and settled against the pillows, beckoning me to join her with a crook of her finger. I yanked off my jeans and socks in one swift motion, jumping onto the bed. She giggled girlishly at my enthusiasm._

_Goosebumps erupted all over her as I ran my hands along her exquisite curves. A shock shot through me as her hands started exploring my upper torso. With one hand, I undid the clasp of her bra and let the straps slid off her shoulders. I pushed her back and removed the offending piece cloth. A blush covered her face and spread across her chest that I could not pull my eyes away from. I laid beside her running my hand along the curve of her breast. She arched into my hand and moaned my name, a shiver running through her body._

_"God you're so beautiful Bella."_

_The proof my arousal bumped against her stomach as I leaned over to attack her mouth and throat again. I moved my mouth down to her chest and continued my assault on her skin._

_"God her skin tastes as good as it smells."_

_While I was distracted, she planted her hands on my chest and pushed me onto my back, straddling my hips. I hissed an indrawn breath as her hot, wet core came in contact with my throbbing erection. She shifted against it as she took control, my hands gripping her hips to keep movement to a minimum. Leaning over me with her hands firmly planted on my chest, She attacked my my mouth with vigor. I responded in turn, but it ended quickly. She bite my bottom lip lightly before she trailed nips and kisses along my jawline. Reaching my ear she took the lobe into her mouth and sucked on before continuing down my throat to my chest. I thought she would stop there but instead slid down my body until she met the waistband of my boxer-briefs. Stopping there she teased me even further by licking a line across my pelvic bone before grabbing the waistband and pulling it down until I was finally freed. She threw my last remaining article of clothing onto the floor and locked her eyes with mine. I groaned and bunched the comforter in my hands as she slowly licked her lips and bit her bottom one. Her hands moved up my thighs until she came in contact with my dick. I couldn't help the noises I made as she grabbed my shaft with her dainty hands and lowered her mouth onto the tip. She licked and sucked until I couldn't take it anymore._

_I grabbed her and flipped her over, yanking the shred of lace that was the only barrier left between us. I cupped her in my hand before dragging one finger through her slit. She was sopping wet. When I hit her bundle of nerves she jerked and screamed my name._

_"Please Edward."_

_I smirked to myself as I lowered my head and got my first taste of pure Bella. It was heaven. I latched onto the clit and licked and sucked until she was writhing and panting my name. I inserted a finger and found the spot inside of her that drove her over the edge. I licked up every bit of her essence that I could before moving back up her body. I sprawled across her holding myself up on my hands and gazed upon the most beautiful sight I had ever seen._

_Bella looked up at me through hooded eyes that were glazed over with complete satisfaction. I kissed her again. This time softly until she pulled away. She looked up at me and smiled._

_"Edward I want you, now."_

_"Your wish is my command."_

_I pushed into her slowly, relishing the feeling of having her heat wrapped around me. I swear I was having a religious experience tonight. Her muscles clenched and unclenched around me as I picked up the pace. I was getting close and I could tell by the noises that she was making that she was with me. Suddenly she arched off of the bed and screamed my name at the top of her lungs. The sight before me combined with the sound of my name on her lips and her muscles clenched tightly around me, sent me over the edge with her. I came hard screaming her name and groaning as I collapsed beside her. I pulled her against me as we cuddled underneath the blanket that she pulled over us. I fell asleep to the sound of her soft even breathing._

_I have never slept more peacefully in my entire life._

I shook myself out of my thoughts as I heard the water turn off. I walked over to the coffeemaker and poured coffee into the waiting mugs adding sugar and cream to Bella's just the way she liked it. I took a couple of bagels out of a package sitting on the counter. I popped them into the toaster and grabbed the cream cheese out of the fridge. As I spread it onto our toasted bagels, Bella walked around the corner.

We sat down at the table with our breakfast on ate in silence. When I finished my coffee, I gathered up the plates and mugs, rinsing them off in the sink. When I turned back around Bella was gone. I found her sitting on the couch in the living room. I walked over and sat beside her putting my arm around her shoulders. She stiffened immediately. I pulled away and noticed the panicked look in her eyes.

"Bella, please tell me what's wrong."

"I'm not sure last night was such a good idea."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm saying it was a mistake to do what we did. What is everybody going to think?"

I jumped up.

"Who cares what anybody thinks?"

"I do!" she screamed back at me.

"Fine than!" I said as I stormed to the door.

"See you at work tomorrow. And don't worry I won't tell anybody about what a huge mistake _you_ made!" I yelled, as I slammed the door behind me.

The whole way home I was livid. I couldn't think about anything else but the words that Bella had said to me.

_A mistake. Is she fucking kidding me? That was the most wonderful night of my life._

After I got home and took a shower, I started to calm down. I tried to see it from her point of view. Maybe she thinks that everybody will just think that the reason that she got a promotion was because we were sleeping together. Even though we both know that it isn't true, everyone else might see it otherwise. I'll just give her time. I'll try to talk to her about after work tomorrow.

I spent the rest of the day cleaning up my apartment and taking care of other household responsibilities. I went grocery shopping, did the laundry, paid all my bills and balanced the checkbook. By the time I had finished, it was time for bed.

I woke up the next morning in a sour mood. I hadn't slept very well at all. I dreamt about the night before all night. Everytime I woke up, I would reach across my bed and realize that she wasn't there. So pissed at the world, I got ready and went to the crime lab.

When I got there, I noticed that Lauren was back at her desk.

_Good they were able to clear her._

I went to my office and it was more bad news. Jessica and Mike were still missing and we still had no idea who the other set of prints belonged to. The vics laying in our morgue where still Jane Does.

I spent most of the day in the campfire room trying to piece together anything. I hadn't seen Bella all day and was beginning to think that she was avoiding me. As I was walking through the parking garage towards my car at the end of the day, I noticed Bella talking to Lauren.

_That's odd._

"Bella!"

She turned around at the sound of her name with a look of panic. She turned back around and agreed with Lauren about something before jumping into Lauren's rental car. They sped out of the structure and down the street. I called Bella's cell and heard it ring. I found it, along with her purse sitting on the hood of her car. I shut my phone, took her purse and walked back inside to find Alice. Something was up, I just didn't know what it was and that bothered me.

Mystery POV

I chuckled softly as I watched the bronze-haired man walk back into the building. I now knew who he was. Lead CSI Edward Cullen and brother of my mark's best friend Alice. They had known each other for years and he was her boss, but that didn't stop them from harboring love for one another.

I didn't mind though. She was mine now, thanks to that dimwitted bitch whose car was used in our little game. I had a feeling that Edward was going to make this much more fun than I had originally planned for. But I was up for the challenge.

I left the parking garage and walked down the street to my waiting car. As I got in, I dialed up Lauren's number. She answered immediately.

"Good girl. Drive to the drop off, I'll meet you there. Now put her on the phone."

I heard her hand over the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Isabella. I can't wait to meet you. We are going to have so much fun together."

"Who is this?"

"You don't know me but you know my work. Those two girls that are lying in the morgue."

I could hear her sharp intake of breath as that little piece of information sunk in.

"You can call me James."

A/N2: review? Still with us?


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